


Best Apology

by ViimaTheFailcat



Category: Pocket Monsters: Sword & Shield | Pokemon Sword & Shield Versions, Pocket Monsters: X & Y | Pokemon X & Y Versions
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Not Beta Read, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-26 02:33:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,099
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21635914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViimaTheFailcat/pseuds/ViimaTheFailcat
Summary: Rose goes on a hike and meets someone he never expected to meet in his life.
Comments: 6
Kudos: 53





	Best Apology

**Author's Note:**

> What's better than this, making your comfort characters be friends.
> 
> I wrote this very hastily over a few evenings when I was half-asleep, so if it's... wonky. You know why it's wonky.

Former chairman Rose looked over the rolling hills of the Wildlands and took a deep breath. He normally wasn't the hiking type, but after a nightmarish few weeks of nothing but community service, disaster control with PR and coaching several different people to take his place in his various companies, he just…

He needed some quiet, away from the city. Away from people.

So he packed a backpack, made sure to notify the authorities and Oleanna so they wouldn't think he'd escaped the region, and left on a hike.

Overall, Rose had been… lucky, in a way. He had gotten away with just community service, having to give away lots of his assets (both of which he agreed to and latter that he had been planning to do eventually anyway) and a stern warning. 

In the following media chaos, Rose had heard of that Kalosian man, Lysandre, who had been motivated by similar sentiments as Rose himself. He had looked into what happened to him after the fact, but couldn't find much. 

Rose went ahead and assumed that it was because Lysandre had died when the cave collapsed in Geosenge Town.

So, yes, Rose definitely was lucky, in comparison. Even though he thought that his punishment could and should have been harsher.

But was it really worth it? Staying alive to feel the overwhelming guilt crushing him in his every waking moment? Would death be the only redemption that would truly make up for his mistakes?

Rose shook his head. This wasn't a healthy train of thought. Better nip it in the bud and think about something else.

Like that fascinating Kalosian folktale he had found out about while reading about Lysandre. Lysandre was said to be a descendant of a legendary Kalosian king, which was the segue that lead Rose to this tale. The tale of AZ, the king who became immortal and is said to be still wandering the earth, looking for his revived companion who abandoned him. 

Rose sympathised with the king. In a way, he had also done a terrible mistake out of despair and love and was now struggling under the weight of the consequences.

Rose wondered if the tale was even true. He had initially shrugged it off as a sad fairytale, but he had also found several stories from ordinary people about seeing an extremely tall man wandering around Kalos who the locals called AZ… If it was true… It had been over three thousand years by now, surely he had found his companion by now…? Rose hoped he had. It would be too heartbreaking to think about if he was still wandering and searching.

Rose was drawn out from his thoughts by his copperajah, who was huffing, sounding agitated.

"What is it?" Rose asked.

The copperajah waved its trunk, as if pointing towards something. Rose turned to the direction that was agitating his pokemon and saw a wild bewear charging at a… was that an abomasnow?

_ No, that’s a human _ , Rose realized with a chill.

“Copperajah, let’s go!” Rose barked out, starting to run. “Use rollout to get there, then rock smash!”

Copperajah trumpeted loudly and charged, leaving running Rose behind. It hit the bewear squarely on the back and made it buckle.

The bewear whipped around and glared at copperajah.

Rose ran past the two pokemon, to the human hunched over on the ground. They were a lot taller close-up, Rose noted in a moment of hectic clarity. “Are you okay?” He grasped their arm and helped them up.

The person’s long, white hair was mostly hanging on their face, but what little Rose could see was some aged wrinkles and a deep brown eye, wide in surprise. “Ah… oui. Yes,” the man said.

Rose nodded and turned back to the battle. With dawning horror, he realized that bewears are part-fighting and his copperajah is pure steel. _ Maybe this one doesn’t know any fighting-type moves… _

The bewear was swinging its paw towards copperajah, who was waiting for a command.

“Floee!”

A small, blue-and-white pokemon appeared out of nowhere and fired a red beam on the bewear.

The bewear buckled backwards and fell over on its back. It stayed still for a tense moment, before it scampered back to its feet and ran off.

Rose released a huge breath, relieved.

The small, blue-and-white pokemon, however, wasn’t done. It turned and gave Rose the filthiest look he’s ever seen on such a small pokemon’s face. It then started chirping aggressively and zipped between Rose and the tall man, pointing its red-and-black flower at him. The flower was faintly glowing red.

Rose lifted his palms up and stepped back with a sheepish smile. “Sorry, sorry!”

“Floette,” the old man said, a gentle chide in his tone. “That’s not a way to speak to someone who just saved us.”

The pokemon, floette, stared at Rose for a moment before it lowered it with a huff. “Floe. Floet, floee.”

“I know you did, darling,” the tall man answered lightly.

Floette rolled its eyes and flew to the man, settling to float next to his shoulder. It still glared Rose, though.

“Let me apologize,” the tall man said, “She used to be my bodyguard. She still thinks she is.”

“Flo- _ ee _ .”

Rose laughed. “That’s fine. Are you alright? You’re not hurt, are you?”

The man smiled. “I am fine, thank you.” He pressed his hand to his chest and gave a small bow. “And, thank you for saving us.” (Rose couldn’t help but notice that Floette rolled its eyes again at that.)

Rose waved a hand. “Don’t mention it.”

Now that Rose saw him closer, he could see that the man was still taller than him, even when he was still sitting on the ground. His hair was still hanging on his face and obscuring half of it, but he looked old, very old. His visible eye was… deep, for a lack of a better word. Rose brushed it up to his age. The tall man was wearing clothes that… have seen better days. The coat was torn and his shoes appeared to be held together with duct tape.

The old man nodded and slowly stood up, with the exact weight you’d expect from someone his age and height. “Now, excuse me…”

Without thinking, Rose grabbed on to his sleeve.

The old man paused, giving Rose another surprised look.

Why did Rose do that? He found himself speechless for a second. "I… I-I'm sorry, the might sound insane, but… You don't happen to be… a… from Kalos?"

The tall man smiled. "Is my accent that obvious?"

"No, it's- I mean, I…" Why was he so flustered? "I read an old Kalosian folktale recently."

The man exchanged a look with the floette, smile shrinking. "You don't say."

"Y-yes… The tale of the ancient king. Have you heard it?"

The man's smile was now completely gone. Floette floated down to Rose's eye level, flower raised. "I am familiar with it, yes," the man said, tone carefully emotionless.

Rose lifted his hands again. "I-I mean no harm." He swallowed. "Can I ask you something a little odd?"

"I have heard many odd questions in my life. What is one more?"

Rose stared at him, trying to find words to ask his next question without sounding insane. "Are… are you AZ?"

The man's lip quirked, just a little. Floette grinned. "That is one of the names I've been called," the man said.

Rose's shoulders collapsed in shock. The king. The ancient king. From the old, old tale. Right in front of him. 

He must have been quiet for a moment because the tall man, the king, AZ, spoke up. "You have another question."

"I… yes. Yes, I do."

AZ nodded slowly. "Ask me."

Rose smoothed his hand over his beard, frantically collecting his thoughts. "I… is it okay if I preface it with a story? A little personal story?"

AZ sat down, slowly like a glacier. "Of course. I have time."

Rose nodded and started talking. He told AZ about the energy crisis, about Darkest Day, how it would keep him awake at night. He told him about how he planned to fix it before it would be too late. He told how his plan blew up on his face. He told him about turning himself in afterwards.

While Rose recounted his tale, floette appeared to get bored and dived into AZ's bag, digging out a pokeball and releasing a golurk from it. Then she flew off to a nearby berry tree and started picking berries.

AZ, however, patiently listened to Rose's unfiltered and rambling story with his undivided attention. 

When Rose stopped talking, he was almost out of breath. "In short, I did… something bad. A huge mistake. And the shame is… it's eating me alive. You understand, do you not?"

AZ nodded.

Rose nodded too, like the two shared a connection now. "And I… My question is…" He took a shaky breath. "The shame… the guilt. Does it ever go away?"

AZ was quiet for a moment. He was quiet for a long moment. "I cannot speak for how your mind works," he finally said, slowly. "But when I did my, how did you put it, huge mistake…" His face darkened. "When I fired the weapon on innocent people and took their lives and when my dear left me… It felt as if the sun would never shine again and as if I would never feel happy again. And I thought I deserved it. The guilt was everywhere, heavy on my shoulders and dragging on my feet. It was with me every waking moment and in my dreams. I could not get a moment of peace."

Rose nodded. He also knew that feeling well.

AZ closed his eyes. “In short, that guilt… It will never go away,” he simply said.

Rose’s heart sank.

“It will never go away. But,” AZ continued, opening his eyes, “It does get easier to carry. As time passes, as the land and people heal. As you make amends, as you fix the things you broke, as you work to reverse what you did, as you make sure it never happens again… It gets lighter and easier to carry.”

Rose nodded as he digested AZ’s words. 

“Tell me,” AZ spoke up again, “In your plan… Did anyone get hurt? Did anyone die?”

Dear Arceus, Rose hadn’t even thought about that. “Not as far as I know,” he said, weakly.

AZ nodded. “That is good then, is it not? Death is a very hard thing to reverse.”

Rose nodded. It… wasn't quite the answer he wanted, but at least now had some reassurance that there would be light at the end of the tunnel. 

There was a warm weight on his head. AZ was patting Rose on the head.

"You are doing rather fine, from where I am standing," the ancient king said. "You are determined to fix your wrongs, to atone for your sins. That already is much better than what I did."

Rose looked up at AZ's warm brown eyes. "Thank you, your highness," he managed, voice cracking.

That made Floette (who had returned with a small pile of berries and berry juice on her face) smile and nod approvingly.

AZ himself, however, scoffed. "Please. I haven't been worthy of the crown for thousands of years."

Rose chuckled. At least he had gotten to the floette's good side.

A silence fell on the two men.

Rose still had something he was curious about… "That companion pokemon… the one you revived. Did you ever find it?"

AZ smiled and exchanged another look with the floette. The pokemon zipped over to him and rubbed its tiny cheek against AZ's, who closed his eyes on the contact.

Rose finally connected the dots.

"Yes," AZ said, "Yes, I did."

Rose felt a small smile rise on his lips. "I'm glad to hear that." 

Eventually, Rose had to say his goodbyes to the ancient king. AZ walked off into the wilderness and Rose watched after him, absently stroking copperajah's trunk. He wondered if he would ever see AZ again.

The following Monday, he returned to work with a spring in his step. Meeting AZ had been better for him than he had expected. AZ's words had renewed his motivation and seeing him together with his beloved companion had made him believe in himself again. If the fates had deemed AZ worthy of a happy end and redemption, maybe Rose would be, too?

But, before that, he had work to do. After all, the best apology is changed behaviour. 


End file.
